According to school authorities and students, 40 primary school-aged children were left terrified in the dark and cold when a Colorado school bus driver allegedly left them at the incorrect stop on Monday.
According to school administrators, the experience left young pupils at Castle Rock’s Clear Sky Elementary School distraught, crying, and pleading with strangers for help. About 30 miles south of Denver sits Castle Rock.
According to the Douglas County School District, Irving Johnson, the driver, was a replacement who did not adhere to the correct procedures.
Ten-year-old Caitlyn Zavadil told a local news outlet that “he wouldn’t let us leave the school until we stopped talking,” which caused the trip home to begin later than usual.
He did not stop at the drop-off points for the pupils once they were on the road.
“We felt like when he was driving and missing our stops, like we were getting kidnapped,” Caitlyn stated.
Around 5 p.m., the driver allegedly instructed the children to disembark into the cold after driving to a location approximately two miles from the school, close to the intersection of East Wolfensberger Road and Auburn Drive.
“He stopped like right here at this intersection, like about right here, and said, ‘Everybody get off my bus,'” Caitlyn stated. “And then everybody was like stressing, like crying.”
“Me and my little sister, we live like 2 miles away from here, so we had like no idea what to do,” Caitlyn stated.
The Weather Channel reported that Monday’s high at Castle Rock was 51 degrees Fahrenheit, while the low was 19. Caitlyn claimed that she and her sister were so anxious that they were forced to stand in the cold after forgetting their jackets on the bus.
In the end, a stranger called their mother and offered the girls a ride. “I was completely terrified, and for a stranger to call me and tell me that she had my children in the car and they were crying and screaming, and bright red and frozen,” Caitlyn’s mother, Ashley Stark, told.
Families of the students on the bus received an apology email from the Douglas County School District on Wednesday, informing them that the driver is no longer a district employee.
Irving Johnson, the driver, apologized on Wednesday for the incident.
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“I would just like to apologize. I am sorry. I wish I had done better,” he stated. He explained that he asked the children for directions because he didn’t know the way and his tablet wasn’t functioning.
Cosgrove described the event as “troubling” and promised in the apologetic email that the district is “actively reinforcing our safety procedures with all of our drivers.”
The district stated that although some parents have requested to see the video footage taken on the bus during the incident, it will not be made public since the Castle Rock Police Department is still conducting an investigation.
